A group created by the Massachusetts legislature a few years ago has released what it calls a rural policy plan.
The Rural Policy Advisory Commission's plan examines challenges facing rural communities across the state, including population trends and related impacts on schools and transportation. And it has a series of recommendations.
Matt Murphy of the State House News Service guides us on what it might mean for the state.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: Do you get the feeling that lawmakers addressed some of the unique struggles these communities feel?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: We'll see how much traction this report will gain in the legislature. This four-year-old advisory commission published what they're calling the rural policy plan.
It's a comprehensive look at both the troubles and challenges facing rural communities across Massachusetts, which they're defining as communities with less than 500 people per square mile — about 170 of these communities across the state.
And this report looks at both their population growth challenges, with population on the decline — what that's doing to schools — as well as state funding formulas, and how that impacts them.
This report has over 100 recommendations. Among their big priorities is the establishment of a new office that would be in the executive branch under the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development that would focus exclusively on rural policy.
They're looking for updates to state funding formulas, so that programs and grants accurately account for the challenges and expenses that rural communities face.
They're also recommending that they get support from the state, and figuring ways to regionalize services, and look at ways that other states might be using to get people to move to some of these communities and bring jobs and businesses there.
If you look at places like Vermont where they're offering, I think, $10,000 over two years if you'll move to Vermont and work remotely.
There is a piece of legislation filed by Rep. Paul Mark of Peru that would create this new Office of Rural Policy. There is some hope that that will gain some traction this session.
It took eight hours of debate, but the Massachusetts Senate passed an education funding bill. It was designed to put new revenues into K-12 public schools over seven years. What are the big takeaways from that debate and the unanimous vote?
The unanimous vote was an important facet of what happened on Thursday in this debate. The lead-up got a little turbulent when the governor published some numbers that gave a snapshot of what districts might expect from this bill.
The legislative leaders took umbrage to some of the numbers in this. They said it's alittle more complicated than the picture the governor was painting. But the bottom line is this bill is going to pump probably over $2 billion of new money into public education across the state.
And every community, from the cities like Springfield and Holyoke, to the smaller communities in western Mass., and on the Cape, will all be getting at least some additional money that they wouldn't be getting without a change to the funding formula. So the fact that this passed unanimously in the Senate and now moves to the House, where they had co-wrotten this bill, probably bodes well for moving it forward.
Now we'll see where the animosity goes between legislative leaders and Governor Charlie Baker, who is yet to really stake out a position on this bill.
Do we know about where those revenues for the school funding are supposed to be coming from? I mean, the state did see a slight dip in tax revenues last month.
They did. And that is a concern for some.
This bill does not have a funding mechanism. Leaders have said no new taxes are required.
What this is, is essentially a commitment from the legislature to pay for it. To make room in their annual state budgets to fund this new formula.
It's similar to the way they did it in 1993, where they just committed themselves to doing it. And then every year as they develop their budgets, they had to adhere to this funding formula.
But as some economic experts look forward and see a potential decline in economic growth, maybe even a recession on the horizon, there is some concern about whether or not this will be affordable long-term.
